Respiratory therapy最新文献

The quality of services provided by respiratory therapists must be measured as part of a hospital's overall evaluation of patient care, as mandated by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals. An internal audit helps both the respiratory therapists and the attending physicians to know what kind of specific documentation is needed in the medical records to meet the desired standards. It also serves as a useful tool in identifying staff educational needs.

The system which determines who among those with respiratory impairment will qualify for disability benefits stands in need of change. Physicians need clearer criteria by which to ascribe occupational cause to impairment. Suggestions from experts should be shared and implemented more extensively. And practices of governmental agencies should be standardized to eliminate unfairness to both beneficiaries and taxpayers.

With the development of new materials and with innovations in the design of the cylinder, pressurized oxygen delivery systems have become more reliable and efficient since their introduction in the early 1900s. And in the past two decades, liquid-oxygen systems and oxygen concentrators have become available as alternatives.

Pulmonary function tests have been out of reach of many persons living far from medical centers. Now, new techniques are making remote testing by telephone available to larger and larger numbers of people and are proving to be cost-effective for patients and hospitals alike.

The professional assigned to critical care must be able to respond to a variety of problems--respiratory, heart, renal, neurologic, and others. Advent of critical care medicine will produce much change in personnel functions and will greatly benefit critically ill patients.

Hyperbaric medicine, which was called compressed air therapy prior to 1956, began in the 1830s in England and France. After initial enthusiasm for this treatment, interest began to wane because of a lack of documentation of benefit. The medical community became skeptical, and use of the modality diminished. In the 1900s there was a resurgence of interest, but again, due to a lack of data and because conferences on the therapy were devoted more to the research aspects of complications than to clinical uses, less and less attention was given to potential applications. During the past 15 to 20 years, interest in hyperbaric medicine has reemerged. However, despite the facts that its uses are now well documented and that eminent professionals are involved in hyperbaric research and application, the field has never quite recovered from the equivocal role it once played.

While there are no standard methods for evaluating the work of respiratory therapists, supervisors agree that periodic evaluation is essential. Some institutions base merit raises or step increase on the results of the yearly appraisal. Others merely want to ensure that respiratory therapists are performing effectively. Methods range from an evaluation form which can be filled out by the supervisor or both the supervisor and the employee to an on-the-job evaluation by hospital personnel.

Licensing laws are an exercise of the policing powers of the state to protect the public health, safety, and welfare by preventing the unqualified from practicing. This basic principle is often misunderstood. This article neither advocates nor challenges the need for licensure but rather examines the forces determining if the time for respiratory therapy licensure has arrived.